Traffic condition diagrams represent the field conditions for roadways and roadway intersections and are relied upon by government agencies and others to indicate the conditions of an intersection and the surrounding area as it currently exists. Condition diagrams show intersection alignment, traffic lanes, traffic lane flow requirements (e.g. left or right turn only lanes), as well as signage, sidewalks, lighting positions, water hydrants, buildings and turn-offs for parking lot access, etc. Accordingly, condition diagrams are used in traffic planning, as well for other official purposes, including collision reports that are to be potentially relied upon in legal proceedings, and as such must be kept up to date.
The conventional method of generating traffic condition diagrams is by survey. That is, personnel go to the section of roadway for which the traffic condition diagram is to be created, and then observe and measure the locations of various roadway features and surrounding related features, and then use this collected information to generate a condition diagram. Typically a computer aided drawing (CAD) program is used to create the traffic condition diagram, using the collected data to select appropriate symbols to represent the roadway, lanes, lane markings, signage, and so on. That means that generation of a condition diagram requires the efforts of likely several people, and the time it takes to survey a location and then create a drawing including information representing the features observed by the survey.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for generating traffic condition diagrams without having to rely on surveys conducted by people and drawing generated from the survey results.
Those skilled in the field of the present disclosure will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein. The details of well-known elements, structure, or processes that would be necessary to practice the embodiments, and that would be well known to those of skill in the art, are not necessarily shown and should be assumed to be present unless otherwise indicated.